I use to think that saying that I favored one of my designs over all of the others sounded as bad as saying that I had a favorite child. I had to remind myself that even though I have an emotional (unnatural, perhaps?) attachment to everything I make, my pieces are not living, breathing creatures. Sorry Sweet Peas, that goes for you too. So I’m just going to say it- the Whirl Serving Dish is my favorite.

Other than my husband and loved ones (especially including my dog) there is nothing as important to me as my work. And because there is no design that I have thought about and agonized over more, the Whirl holds a special place in my heart. At the time, it seemed like the idea for the design just tumbled out of nowhere. One minute I was playing around, cutting up some bowls that I had thrown and then BOOM! I saw how this simple bowl could become a new form. I thought, “I’ll just make a couple of adjustments and it’ll be great. Shouldn’t be too hard to make”. Ha! What a naive little potter I was.

Imagining the form was the easy part. Actually making what I envisioned as perfectly as I imagined turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. Keeping the lines fluid and seamless on what was essentially a surgically altered porcelain “skin” at times seemed impossible. The lines within the piece where what made the design visually dynamic and interesting and I knew that any ornamentation including a heavy glaze would take away from that. So I had the bright idea that the Whirl would only have a clear glaze. That meant that even the slightest imperfections along the seams would be visible. Fabulous. Thankfully after a lot of trial and error and more error, frustration and swearing I developed a technique that works pretty well.*

Now the Whirl has become my favorite thing to make. For the past few weeks I’ve been working on some new incarnations, using the same general technique, but focusing on the idea of functional sculpture. I’m excited to push it even further, but I wanted to share a two of my favorites that just came out of the kiln. Each will be available in myshops this week.

* Sorry, I’m not going to tell you what that technique is. A girl has to have her secrets.